windows 10 activation key?

I had to get a new motherboard for my pc.
Win 10 was licensed to THAT board, since changing my board Win 10 wants to be activated again.

I've got a Win7 key on my laptop, but it doesn't recognise that (someone told me it did).

I'd probably rather not get a crack/keygen, but might end up doing so.

Any ideas?

It was a 2nd hand pc, which had the Win10 upgrade so no product key sticker.

Thanks

 

What does it say when you put the windows 7 key in?

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

 

the product key didn't work, try another one.
error code: 0xc004f050
its a genuine 7 key which isn't being used, its my old laptop

 

It looks as if you have used the key more times than allowed, this happens to me all the time now when reinstalling. Try the methods below.

1.
You may try the following steps and check if you can activate Windows.
Click Start and in start Search, type CMD
Right click on CMD and select ‘Run as Administrator'
At a command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER

slui 3

If you are getting a prompt to enter the product key, then try entering the product and check if you can activate.
If not, then try Phone Activation and check.


2.
At the enter your product key page, do a keyless installation (do not enter a key).
Once you have reached the desktop, click Start, type: CMD
Right click CMD, click ‘Run as administrator’
At the command prompt, type, regedit
Go to HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersionsetup/OOBE/mediabootinstall
changed its value to 0
Go back to the Command Prompt, type the following:
slmgr /rearm
Restart the pc and use the activate windows to re-enter my product key

 

I moved windows from one PC to another last year. I had to deactivate the key from the first PC and then install as normal on the new one. Microsoft are trying to stop people from being able to swap windows when people are upgrading their PC's

Have a read of this it might help.
http://www.howtogeek.com/239815/why-cant-you-move-a-windows-installation-to-another-computer/

 

Thanks I'll have a look when home.
It was licensed to a motherboard but it fried & needed replacing. Windows didn't recognise the new board as being licensed, didn't have a licence sticker. Clean installation on new board trying to use Windows 7 license from laptop which is now running Linux (hate Linux, but my work used it).

 

Thanks for the replies. It turned out that I had a home edition of 7 & a pro edition of 10.
When downloading 10 it seems to automatically give you pro as default, so you need to manually override your choice (home in my case).
I booted from a USB stick with the home version of 10 & it accepted the 7 home key.

Just incase anyone comes up against this in future.